1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector utilizes a ground plate to collectively and electrically contact with multiple signal terminals, whereby only a single ground pin extending from the ground plate is needed to mounted on a circuit board.
2. Related Art
With reference to FIG. 4, the structure of a conventional electrical connector is shown. In FIG. 5, the connector of FIG. 4 is jointed to a circuit board, such as a main board (90) for the computer. The electrical connector mainly comprises two parts, wherein the upper part is a female connector (70) with 15 contact holes to correspondingly link with a male connector with 15 pins, such as a male connector of the computer joystick. The lower part of the electrical connector is formed as a rectangular body (80) equipped with three signal terminals (71), wherein the common specifications of the three signal terminals are the line output, line input and microphone joint.
Each signal terminal (71) is composed of a ground base (72) and a conductive copper sleeve (73) formed on the ground base (72). A colored rubber ring (74) is further put around the copper sleeve (73), thus the user can recognize the kind of the signal terminal (71) based on the color of the rubber ring (74).
The ground base (72) made up of conductive metal and includes a substantially square sheet, and two pairs of buckling plates (721) respectively and perpendicularly formed on opposite flanges of the square sheet, wherein a ground pin (75) further extends from a flange of the square sheet and between one paired buckling plates (721). The extending direction of the ground pin (75) is relative to that of the buckling plates (721).
The rectangular body (80) is formed with three ports each to receive a signal terminal (71). Each port is defined with a groove (81) to receive one pair of the buckling plates (721) of the ground base (72). At the bottom of the rectangular body (80), multiple protrusions (82) are integrally formed to correspondingly buckle with the other pair of the buckling plates (721). Each port is further has a hole (83) defined at the center, whereby when the signal terminal (71) is equipped to the port, a plug (not shown) of an electrical instrument, such as the plug of the earphone, the plug is able to insert into the hole (83) through the copper sleeve (73). The plug is then electrically contacted with signals pins (84) extending out from the bottom of the body (80).
As shown in FIG. 4, when signal terminals (71) are respectively inserted into the ports, multiple conductive pins including signal pins (84) and ground pins (75) are disposed at the bottom of the body (80). As shown of this connector, the three ground pins (75) are all for connecting with ground, but each is individually protruded from a signal terminal, therefore, the total number of conductive pins is increased. When the connector is welded to a main board, such a quantity of conductive pins will increase the complexity of the welding process and the processing time is prolonged. Furthermore, if one ground pin (75) is not well jointed at the main board, the corresponding signal terminal (71) will become faulty.
To overcome the shortcomings, an electrical connector with a common ground plate in accordance with the present invention obviates or mitigates the aforementioned problems.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector that utilizes a common ground plate to collectively contact all signal terminals disposed in the electrical connector so as to simply the jointing process when the electrical connector is welded to a circuit board.
To achieve the objective, the electrical connector comprises a body and a ground plate. The body is defined with openings to receive signal terminals. Multiple signal pins are further disposed inside the body and extends out from the bottom of the body to joint at the circuit board.
The ground plate is mounted on the body to electrically contact with all signal terminals, wherein a ground pin is integrally formed on and extends from the ground plate to connect at the circuit board.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.